Midway through my second year as a History and Philosophy student at Lancaster University, I secured a Marketing and Social Media Internship here, at More Music. I was astounded by the expanse of their work and how I could honestly say that it was a place where I would be honoured to have a role in; not only would I be able to expand my skills and develop experience but also I could contribute positively to the community.

I started the ground running, on my first day doing the fortnightly newsletter, an event poster as well as some press releases. My first day illustrates perfectly the breadth of what a marketing placement can offer as well as the distinct range of tasks that are involved in the organisation of music events in general. Such a job requires people to show creativity and flexibility and it is because of this changing nature that I’m looking forward to my time to come.

The newsletter was something that I thoroughly enjoyed playing with, it is a form of communication that links directly to the community and shares upcoming events as well as reflection on the wider world. In order to be effective, it must reflect More Music entirely and so it was a perfect opportunity for me to get to grips with More Music’s ethos. Playing with fonts and colours were secondary to placing importance on the right things and ensuring that events weren’t overshadowed: it featured a video of the Seagull Café, an initiative that has made an impact upon so many in Morecambe and utterly deserves every chance it has to shine in the limelight.

This week marked the first time where I no longer needed to check the dates and information of our upcoming events: after doing the listings, filling the box office information in as well as writing the press releases, it feels like the events are part of me now – and I’m only an intern! Writing and reflecting on my time so far has made me appreciate the hard-work and effort that the team put in.

There is a skill in describing a musician’s sound and being able to portray that in the written word, hopefully in an unpretentious way; this skill is one that I have begun to fine tune. I am fortunate enough to have a musical background and to a degree I thought that that sort of work I would be used to, however, there is another level in the analysis that is often missed in a musical education; explaining it in a way that is accessible whilst also being representative of the music, the musician and the story that links them both. After all, there is more to advertising than simply the where and when, it is about getting people excited and interested in music that they may not have been immersed in.

Looking ahead, over the next few weeks I will be conducting some research into social media strategy to discover what would work best for a company that is as much about building closer ties within the community as much as having performances.  This will be a chance to deepen my own knowledge on marketing techniques in the music industry and apply that onto the goals that we are looking to achieve; I look forward to sharing my findings with you and explaining more about everything I get to participate in.